Disneycember 2012

[Rebochan]

Oh man, I'm so sorry I missed that! Darn Holidays I didn't realize he did Bolt out of order though, it came AFTER Meet the Robinsons and Chicken Little.

So, I'll comment on Bolt - I both love and hate this movie. Is that strange? I think the story and the characters are better, but this movie really falls apart when you apply the slightest logic to it. I mean, things like - Penny is literally told to abandon ever finding her dog again so the show could continue? Why? Just cast a replacement dog AND let her find her own damn dog. There's no reason to force this. And for that matter, why does the network do nothing to find their canine star? In the real world, such a valuable animal would be all over the news! And was that set the least safe of any set in history? It caught fire in no time and there were NO firemen, NO sprinklers, and for THAT matter, no people on the set trying to observe safety regulations due to the rather strict laws involved in filming shows with children? That show would never fly because you couldn't insure it! Look, there's only so much "Hollywood people are EEEVIL" things you can try to handwave before you have to admit these are all gaping plot holes.

And what about the dog? How does he think he has special powers when so many of the effects would require computers and obvious wire work?

But really, what gets me in this one is just...god, the moral is so hollow coming out of Disney. Especially when they cast Miley Cyrus as the little girl who learns Hollywood and acting are evil and goes home to live a normal life. Yea, no.

So, what do I love? The dialog is overall quite sharp. It doesn't force hipness like Chicken Little or Meet the Robinsons and when it does do a nod to pop culture, it's extremely subtle and non-intrusive (the Goodfeathers in particular). While the plot has some mind-numbing logical leaps, the drama of the characters are genuine and I won't lie, the scene where Mittens breaks down talking about how she became a stray and lost faith in people really hit close to home because of my own work with homeless cats (right down to being declawed and tossed out the door to fend for themselves.)

[TallGeekyGirl]

And there's a late entry!

A Christmas Carol

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid...hristmas-carol

I didn't really get into this one much. My favorite renditions of this story are, in order:

Roger William's animated special from the early 70s

The 1984 version with George C. Scott as Scrooge

The musical Scrooge with Albert Finney

The late 90's version with Patrick Stewart


The rest are either meh at best or atrocious at worst.

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by TallGeekyGirl

And there's a late entry!

A Christmas Carol

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid...hristmas-carol

I didn't really get into this one much. ...

Maybe the best version is the one you grow up with, I don't know. My favorite has always been the Alastair Sim one, though I'm old enough to remember radio broadcasts featuring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge--when I was a kid, I loved those. The Jim Carrey one, well, I thought there was too much slapstick action in places and that the good parts--there were some, as the review says--didn't make up for that.

[TallGeekyGirl]

I love the Roger Williams version because, to date, it's the only version I've ever seen that actually followed Dickens' description of the Ghost of Christmas Past. The Jim Carrey version sort of came close, however, but not quite. It concentrated on the candle-like nature of the Ghost, to the exclusion of its flickering limbs and outline.

And perhaps you're right about which version is one's favorite. I adored the Albert Finney musical as a child in the 70's, and waited for it to come on every year. Eventually I even recorded it with the VCR so I could pause it and write down the song lyrics. When the George C. Scott version came out in 1984, that moved to second place because, as much as I loved the songs in the musical, it was more accurate to the original story.

[Darth Credence]

By far my favorite Christmas Carol is the Muppet's version. That and Scrooged are the only versions I will watch. While I like the story, I don't find it anywhere near compelling enough to watch multiple versions of it, so we generally watch the Muppets every year, and tune in to a bit of Scrooged if we run across it on TV. I've seen a few of the others, but not the Jim Carrey one. I doubt if any new version would get me to watch.

[Rebochan]

Thanks for the link.

I have to admit to writing this one off just based on the goofy "Scrooge rocketing around in the sky" trailers and marketing. I actually want to give this a chance now in spite of the weak elements. Though the animation is really bad - seriously, the movements are so stiff and weak and none of the elements seem to have any life to them. Even the fabric of the clothing feels like a first-year animator's student project. No wonder people complained about the "uncanny valley" - these animators clearly don't understand movement in the first place, so the effects just came off CREEPY in the clips he showed. I saw Tintin in 2011 and never, ever felt creeped out or unsettled by it, so it's not the technology that's the problem...it's the talent of the animators.

Oh, me? George C. Scott, hands down. Bought the Blu-Ray this Christmas in fact (and largely because Doug called it out in their Sibling Rivalries special).